THE WORLD’S DEBT TO THE IRISH 
nately for the poverty stricken people it was only 
too often a sad reality. ‘They liked potatoes and 
fish as the rhyme with regard to ‘‘St. Patrick’s day in 
the morning’’ emphasizes, but unfortunately in their 
poverty though they lived near the ocean and vari- 
ous fresh waters containing fish they were not al- 
lowed to secure it. They had to limit the amount 
of it that each might eat but they served it anyhow 
and the sight of it was appetizing and they pointed 
the potatoes at it and so potatoes and point repre- 
sented a sort of variety to the monotonous potato 
diet. 
The Irish had some habits of eating that we have 
now come to realize were very precious. They 
liked onions and gathered them in the spring time 
and gifted them with special salubrious qualities so 
that if one were to listen to some of the old Irish 
one would be tempted to think that onions or 
innians as they often called them—as did also the 
Elizabethans—represented a panacea for most of 
the ills to which flesh is heir. As a matter of fact 
with the discovery of the value of the vitamins in the 
human diet, we have come to appreciate much better 
just what onions represent. After the long winter 
they were the first green vegetables that appeared 
and contained an abundance of the living elements 
that are so precious for vital processes in the body. 
During the winter the Irish had lived on potatoes 
and salt meat of one kind or another with some stir- 
about and some milk. The fresh milk gave the 
children the vitamins they needed but the older 
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